SHIPYARD REPORT
SYNTHETIC NATURAL GAS MAKES ITS COMMERCIAL DEBUT
Credit: MAN ES
On a sunny autumn afternoon near the north German coast on Wednesday, 29 October 2021, a select audience gathered to watch the bunkering of a test cargo of 20 tons of LNG onto a 1,036 teu capacity container vessel
Retrofitting as key to emissions reduction The vessel selected for the first bunkering of SNG was ElbBLUE. The 1,036 teu container feeder, which is owned by German shipowner Elbdeich Reederei and operated by charterer Unifeeder, is an example of a successful conversion to dual-fuel operation. When its four-stroke main engine was converted to a MAN 51/60DF unit in 2017, it was the first such conversion of its type globally. The event was also attended by Stefan Eefting, Senior Vice President and Head of MAN PrimeServ, Augsburg, who stressed that engine retrofits to operate on synthetic fuels would have a crucial role to play in reducing or even eliminating future emissions. The vessel sailed to St. Petersburg in Russia, where the performance of the vessel would be monitored by a team of engineers from MAN PrimeServ, MAN Energy Solutions’ aftersales division. The arrival of Power-to-X While the event focused on the technical achievement of bunkering SNG, the greater implication was that it marked the arrival of green synthetic natural gas (SNG) into the fuel mix for commercial shipping. The quantity of fuel supplied may have been comparatively limited, and the fuel was supplied at a price that was significantly above other alternative fuels, such as LBG.
10 | OCTOBER 2021
However, the fact that synthetic natural gas (SNG) produced in Lower Saxony from renewable electricity has been bunkered represents a key milestone. It was also fitting that the first bunkering of green SNG should occur in Germany, given the importance of German researchers in the history of synthetic fuel production research. The importance of figures such as Friedrich Bergius, as well as Franz Fischer and Hans Tropsch, live on in their eponymous processes. As Wayne Jones OBE, Chief Sales Officer, MAN Energy Solutions told The Motorship during a tour of the vessel, the bunkering demonstrated that the technology required for Power-to-X to work was both developed and available. Mr. Uwe Lauber, CEO of MAN Energy Solutions, took a broader view of the challenge of introducing SNG into the marine fuel chain. “SNG is not available in the quantities required by the shipping industry at the moment, so there is a chicken and egg aspect to the discussion”, Dr. Lauber said, adding that “I’m quite sure that the [expansion of renewable 8 The 20t stem of SNG was produced from renewable electricity at kiwi AG’s plant in Lower Saxony (pictured).
Credit: Audi AG
Yet the bunkering event itself represented a significant event. The fuel bunkered was synthetic natural gas (SNG) generated from 100% renewable electricity, and the event marked the first time that such a fuel had been used in commercial shipping.
8 The ElbBLUE became the first vessel to be bunkered with green SNG bunkering on 29 September 2021
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